October, 2009

As I write to you, I am surprised that it has already been two months since our last prayer letter. We have experienced some extreme situations during the last few months. Kathy's recovery from her surgery has gone very well. In fact, I am convinced that she had the perfect doctor, the perfect surgery, etc. She was on her feet almost immediately. She had had a condition, where her intestines could have burst, and that section needed to be removed. But, God's Hand was truly a part of the whole process. PTL! We felt that we needed to make a short visit to our daughter in September to clarify her situation and needs. It was a good visit, and she is doing well (as far as we can see). That was a good break for us, but it still did not prove to be a good substitute for a vacation. Pray that we may be able to find time away. Parallel to these things, we have been seeing periods of weekly conversions of new believers among the Bulgarian Turks. Many of them have also had special needs, with which I have been asked to help with translation. That has meant sometimes as many as four appointments in a day. The numbers of Bulgarian Turks continues to grow. We now have between 100 and 120 of them in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, most of them have only a very limited ability in German, so their need for my services is great. There are pregnant women without insurance, a five-year-old boy with a hernia (and no insurance), people in need of food, a school boy who needed glasses, etc. Unfortunately, as I am writing this letter, I have just learned that one of the women has just lost her unborn child. She had to go back to Bulgaria for the birth, since German doctors were even unable to check her condition during the pregnancy. To help these people, I have visited over 10 different local government offices (often more than once). However, God is using these things to show them His Love and to bring them to Himself. Before the Turkish Pastor's trip to Bulgaria and those who came to the Lord there (over 100), I knew that the work we are doing would have ripple effects. But I did not know that it would go in the direction of Bulgaria. Now there is a load of clothing and food being sent to the Bulgarian Turkish villages where visits had been made. Pray for the Bulgarian Turks there and also for the development of Bulgarian Turkish leaders in our fellowship. As is somewhat normal among Turks, everyone wants to be the leader, but most are not educated enough. Many cannot read or write. They speak Turkish and Bulgarian, but are only learning German very slowly. Pray for me, as I seek to help them work together in a unified fashion.

Although we may feel tired, we are seeing God's work in the lives of former Muslims, who are being transformed through the Gospel, and are sharing His Truth with others. It has been amazing to see. It helps us understand more even how God has worked in our lives previously and what our faith really means in a world that is lost.

With our coworker Agnes, we have been blessed, but she has also been ill recently, and that has meant that Kathy is busier than normal, filling-in for her in her German classes and a children's playgroup. This is after we already had began a weekly group for school children too (all are Turkish or Bulgarian Turks). As with most Muslim kids, they are now being instructed about Islam in the public schools here. As a result, some are somewhat more resistant to hearing Biblical stories than a year or two previously, but still are friendly and open with us. Our other main helper has also been gone, due to her vacation. So, we may have coworkers, but sometimes it means that they are with us more "in the spirit" than physically doing the work. As helpers, they do help us when they are with us, but they have their own ministries here, which then give us more work as we fill-in for them when they are not present.

We have not yet heard of any teams coming this next year to help us in ministry. Pray for a team or two. The Turkish children here wait each year for the children's week that we have offered. Perhaps we can locate a German team this time, or perhaps your church would want to send people to do a program. English classes have also been helpful. Through these efforts, we have seen many develop an expanded vision for ministry, gain friendships, we have gained interested contacts with Turks in the neighborhood, etc.

Joshua is currently applying to universities. We are praying that we will have finances to help him pay the bills, as we are also still helping Rachel too.

Our son, Matthew, and his wife (Jenna) went to China for a short-term missions project, with the intention of evaluating the option of missions for their future. It went very well.

We are currently preparing our schedule for our Home Assignment from June through September 2010. If there would be specific dates of interest for our visit, let us know.

At this point, we recently have seen our support need increase. There is an increase of our medical fund costs through Reachglobal, the dollar has dropped in relation to the Euro, and a church has told us that they cannot give about 1000 Dollars of what they have given in previous years. We do not yet know about other possible changes in giving patterns. Please let us know about any changes. Just due to the Dollar change, we have lost about $400.00 per month in our pocket within the last 6-9 months. Our support trend report showed us to be about $7000 behind for the year (about $580 per month). Due to giving patterns, it may not be as much as that, but please do pray for God's provision. We will be having our Home Assignment next summer (June 20­ September 20). Please let us know if there would be preferred dates for us to visit. We will again be visiting about 16 churches (about half of our supporting churches) at that time.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

Sincerely, in Christ,